{"id":8054,"date":"2019-07-08T06:33:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T10:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8054"},"modified":"2019-07-08T06:33:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T10:33:21","slug":"snatching-summer-reading-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8054","title":{"rendered":"Snatching Summer Reading Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/512px_Woman_reading_at_the_beach_converted.jpg?resize=333%2C211&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"reading, beach\" class=\"wp-image-4581\" width=\"333\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/512px_Woman_reading_at_the_beach_converted.jpg?w=512&amp;ssl=1 512w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/512px_Woman_reading_at_the_beach_converted.jpg?resize=476%2C300&amp;ssl=1 476w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Planning a relaxing time at the shore, interspersed with a few (or more) restorative naps? You need a book! But not <em>War and Peace<\/em>, however strong your guilt that  you\u2019ve never read it. Perfect solution? Short stories. Three recent collections (plus two of mine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Xu9MAY\">****Exit Wounds, <\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Xu9MAY\">edited by Paul B. Kane and Marie O\u2019Regan<\/a> \u2013 The cover featuring names of some of today\u2019s best-selling crime fiction authors\u2014Lee Child, Val McDermid, Dean Koontz, Mark Billingham and more\u2014signals good reading ahead. Highlights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>From the Department of Clever Twists comes Jeffrey Deaver\u2019s story of the bullying of a suspect in a string of serial killings and Sarah Hilary\u2019s The Pitcher, in which a journalist visits an obscure Spanish taverna and smacks into the unexpected. <\/li><li>The opening line of Fiona Cummins\u2019s Dead Weight\u2014\u201cYou\u2019re not going to eat that, are you?\u201d\u2014says all you need to know about these mother-daughter duelists.<\/li><li>There\u2019s an Edgar Allan Poe vibe to On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Dublin author John Connolly. Take My Hand by A K Benedict involves something Poe would have loved, a Hand of Glory. If you don\u2019t know what that is, Google it. A sure-fire conversation-stopper. <\/li><li>Dennis Lehane seems to be channeling Raymond Chandler in this line from The Consumers: \u201cWhen she let (her hair) fall naturally, with its tousled waves and anarchic curls, she looked like a wet dream sent to douse a five-alarm fire.\u201d<\/li><li>In Paul Finch\u2019s The New Lad, a brand new policeman is assigned to watch a crime scene overnight. Alone. Outside a derelict mental hospital. In the woods. Excruciating tension!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Akashic collection <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2XyD0ic\">****<\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2XyD0ic\">Milwaukee Noir<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2XyD0ic\">, edited by Tim Hennessy<\/a>, reflects the challenges of a city undergoing a rocky transition away from heavy industry and the challenges and changes that result. As horror writer Peter Straub says about his home town (Millhaven in his books), \u201cWhat happened to the Millhaven where a guy could go out for a beer an\u2019 bratwurst without stumbling over a severed head?\u201d The collection includes stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, and Nick Petrie, but they\u2019re not the only reason to pick up this collection. Two of my favorites were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Runoff by Valerie Laken. An adventuresome trio of teens exploring the pipes under the city finds the unexpected. Perfectly captures the equivocation and fearlessness of youth.<\/li><li>Transit Complaint Box by Frank Wheeler, Jr. A jaded transit security officer and his probationer ride the city\u2019s bus routes, solving some problems, preventing others, and generally filling in for our tattered mental health system. Heartwarming and chilling, rewarding and dangerous in equal proportions.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JjVQAM\">**A Time for Violence: Stories with an Edge<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JjVQAM\">, edited by Andy Rausch and Chris Roy<\/a>. If you want stories of murder and mayhem, this collection is for you. The editors\u2019 intent was to inspire \u201cedgy and transgressive\u201d material. In this, they succeeded. One story, Rausch says, \u201cis neither crime nor horror by standard definitions, and yet it\u2019s the worst of both.\u201d I couldn\u2019t finish it. It wasn\u2019t the only one. Past a certain point of gruesomeness, I lose interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, I chuckled at Santa at the Caf\u00e9 by Joe R Lansdale,\nwhich proves, once again, there\u2019s no honor among thieves. Max Allan Collins\u2019s\nGuest Service: A Quarry Story demonstrates an ideal way to get rid of a\ntroublesome spouse. Elements of a police procedural make Manner of Death:\nHomicide by Peter Leonard fun and funny too, with its inclusion of the kind of\nbanter prevalent among fictional cops and ex-cops. And, I loved the promise of\nlater hijinks in Andrew Nette\u2019s Ladies Day at the Olympia Car Wash, when the\nclean-up of a glamorous gal\u2019s trunk provides clues to homicide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murder, of course, and betrayals by friends and family run\nthrough the whole collection like the bass line of a death march. So, if you\nlike your stories extra-dark, you\u2019ll find much to like here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the foregoing, my two stories published in June only\nprove how vast is the crime\/mystery\/thriller terrain. They\u2019re both in great\ncompany in their respective publications with other excellent stories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In Who They Are Now, an aging sportscaster is murdered under cover of a Florida hurricane. Is someone after his priceless collection of baseball memorabilia? The Delray Beach police are on the case, with help from a no-longer-young Hollywood      star. It\u2019s one of 21 tales in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LHaK66\">The Best Laid Plans<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LHaK66\">, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk<\/a>.<\/li><li>New Energy describes how a young Japanese-American newspaper reporter in Sweetwater, Texas, investigates a friend\u2019s murder. He was killed by a rattlesnake bite, 30 stories up in a wind turbine cabin. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com\/\">Jul-Aug issue of <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com\/\">Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine<\/a><\/em>, available at your local big box or mystery bookstore.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Planning a relaxing time at the shore, interspersed with a few (or more) restorative naps? You need a book! But not War and Peace, however strong your guilt that you\u2019ve never read it. Perfect solution? Short stories. Three recent collections &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8054\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Snatching Summer Reading Time - three short story collections with criminal intent + where to find 2 new stories of mine","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,54,126,120],"tags":[1592,1590,1591,1593],"class_list":["post-8054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-detective","category-reading-2","category-short-story","tag-a-time-for-violence","tag-exit-wounds","tag-milwaukee-noir","tag-my-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/512px_Woman_reading_at_the_beach_converted.jpg?fit=512%2C323&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-25U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8056,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054\/revisions\/8056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}